Faery Craft: Weaving Connections with the Enchanted Realm Carding, Emily (first color ebook reader txt) 📖

to your surroundings strengthen, so will your intuitive awareness of the magickal potential and spirit of objects. A stone found in a place of power can be held in meditation or even just kept in your pocket to help you “plug in” to the energy of the place. (I hope I don’t need to say that under no circumstances should you be chipping parts of standing stones or sacred structures of any kind for this purpose!)

Charging a pebble or crystal with healing energy and then putting it in water can create a healing elixir, or you may charge it with another intent—for example, clarified thinking or enhanced prowess. A stone may help to balance your energies or ground you after magickal work, or you could breathe your troubled thoughts into it and then wash them away. When you do find such allies to work with, spend time simply holding them and emptying your mind, letting them speak. They will most likely communicate to you what they would like to help you with.

If you choose to work with crystals, try to be sure that they have been ethically mined, for not only will the energy of ill-treated crystals be scarred and hard to work with, but it is also against the ethics of Faery work to use something that has been cruelly rent from the land. You don’t need masses of all kinds and colours of crystal; a trusty piece of clear quartz will serve you well in most kinds of energy work. If you are looking for a crystal that is particularly associated with Faery, you may want to seek out a piece of staurolite. I also find that moldavite is a very powerful stone when wishing to channel the energies of the sidhe, but it may not be for everyone. If crystals are something you find particularly helpful, you may wish to try malachite and amethyst to aid in psychic awareness and meditation.

Hagstones, also known as holey stones, fairy stones, and wish stones, are stones that have a naturally worn hole running all the way through them. Most commonly found on beaches, they can also be found in streams or by rivers, as the hole is made by water eroding away the stone over many years. These are particularly potent items, most often hung around the home or worn on the person for protection. If you are lucky enough to find or be gifted a hagstone, thread some red wool the length of your arm through the hole and tie it into a loop, then hang it by your door; that will protect your home from any harmful energies.

Hagstones are also renowned as granting the ability to see Faery beings if you look through the hole. I would suggest that this is a simplified hint at a possible use in trance and journey work. Try holding the stone in your hand when out in nature, and then imagine yourself travelling through the hole as a gateway. See where it takes you…

Chalice or Bowl

Water, especially from springs and wells, is very important in magickal work, being used most often for clearing space, blessing (both space and individuals), healing work, protection, and to consecrate tools and other objects. Of course water needs to be contained, and a silver, glass, or wooden bowl or chalice should be dedicated purely for this purpose. If used for anything mundane in addition to your magickal work, the energies will become tainted and ineffective. Silver is most preferred due to its reflective qualities that aid in holding energy, particularly if charging your water with moonlight.

Drums and Musical Instruments

Faery beings enjoy music played by natural instruments rather than recordings. You will also find that different elemental beings will be attracted by different kinds of sound. For example, earth elementals find the sound of the drum appealing, whereas some water spirits enjoy voice and strings. (For more detail on this area, see the sections on the elements in chapter two.)

Drums and music can also aid in creating altered states in which you may experience a heightened awareness of your surroundings and the spiritual beings within the landscape, so it is definitely worthwhile finding something that resonates with you. A simple, regular beat on a bodhran (a traditional Irish drum used in journey work) can be highly effective. The trick is to listen for the vibration between the drumbeats.

Glass Bottles

Many people use plastic bottles to gather water from springs, rivers, or the ocean for their work, as they are lightweight and convenient. Unfortunately, plastic is an unnatural substance made from polluting chemicals and is thus unsuitable as a container for magickal energy, so try to use glass bottles instead. It is fine to reuse bottles that originally contained other liquids, providing that they are thoroughly cleansed.

Offering Dish

As has already been covered in the previous section, offerings are an extremely important part of Faery Craft, so it is a good idea to have a dish or dishes (again, not plastic) that are used purely for this purpose.

Earth

When consecrating tools, it is most effective to bless them by the four elements. You may wish to use a special stone or rock for earth, but another idea is to have a small wooden or ceramic box in which you keep earth, leaves, small pebbles, and so on from places that hold special significance for you. You can even ask friends to send you small quantities of earth from different sites around the world. Do be careful who you ask, though, as the average person is liable to think this a slightly odd request! I have a small box of earth from the different Celtic lands, and I use this for consecrating and sometimes for offerings, as it was a gift at my ordination and is sacred to me.

Censer

Loose-grain handmade incense burnt on charcoal is far preferable to joss sticks, so you’ll need either a censer or a ceramic dish dedicated to the purpose of burning incense. You may